· Private foundation
The Clayton Family Foundation
Its FY2024 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.
Read this first · the figures below need context
90% of The Clayton Family Foundation’s FY2024 grant dollars went to Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund, not to grantees.
Its money now reaches organizations through that sponsor, which does not report who recommended each grant. FY2024 names 32 organizations directly, so a portfolio cannot be read from it. Everything below is therefore FY2022, the last year The Clayton Family Foundation named its own grantees at scale: 39 organizations, $1M. It is dated, not current.
Organizations named directly on the return
Amber years are those where most dollars went to a sponsor.
What it funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2020 to 2024.
Where the money goes
Grants by size, and the largest recipients.
By grant size · FY2022
- Under $10k34 grants · $91k
- $10k–50k8 grants · $145k
- $50k–250k8 grants · $588k
- $250k+1 grant · $255k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| UNITED WAY OF GREATER KNOXVILLE | $255,000 |
| KNOXVILLE MUSEUM OF ART | $100,000 |
| EPISCOPAL SCHOOL OF KNOXVILLE | $100,000 |
| KNOX EDUCATION FOUNDATON | $100,000 |
| TN STATE COLLAB ON REFORMING EDUC | $75,000 |
| KNOXVILLE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA | $62,500 |
| MOTLOW COLLEGE FOUNDATION | $50,000 |
| HORATIO ALGER ASSOCIATION | $50,000 |
| PELLISSIPPI STATE COMM COLLEGE FDN | $50,000 |
| YWCA | $35,000 |
| GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAIN COUNCIL BSA | $25,000 |
| WEBB SCHOOL OF KNOXVILLE | $21,750 |
| MUSE KNOXVILLE | $20,000 |
| KNOXVILLE ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS INC | $13,000 |
| KNOXVILLE BOTANICAL GARDENS | $10,000 |
Does the money reach high-need areas?
Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.
Its human-services grants (FY20–24, $10k) land where the poverty rate runs at 10%, against an area that typically sits at 11%. 21% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Its grants skew toward lower-need ZIPs.
How this is measured
Which US states its grants reach
How this is measured
Who it funds again
Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.
59 repeat relationships: 37 still active in FY2022, 22 since wound down; 31 grantees were first funded in FY2022 (too recent to call). Read against FY2022, the last year this funder named its own grantees directly; its giving has since run through a sponsor, which reports no donor behind each grant.
How the two cohorts compare
Organizations
Total granted
Median revenue growth · since first grant
Still filing today
New vs renewed · share of each year
In FY2024, 98% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $25k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
Backed again, and grew
- KMKNOXVILLE MUSEUM OF ART5× · 2020–2024 · $503k · revenue +36%
- ESEPISCOPAL SCHOOL OF KNOXVILLE5× · 2020–2024 · $500k · revenue +70%
- TSTENNESSEE STATE COLLABORATIVE ON REFORMING EDUCATION5× · 2020–2024 · $375k · revenue +91%
Funded once
- CCCLEVELAND CLINIC FOUNDATIONone grant, 2021 · $25k
- BGBOYS & GIRLS CLUBS OF THE TENNESSEE VALLone grant, 2021 · $24k · revenue +7%
- ZKZOO KNOXVILLEone grant, 2020 · $10k
How this is measured
Repeat means funded in two or more distinct years. Growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.
Closest unfunded matches
The nonprofits that most resemble its grantees but are not funded by it, scored along the direction from the rest of the field toward the portfolio. A resemblance in what they say they do, not a recommendation.
The academy serves as the local medica society for physicians of knox county and surrounding counties in east tennessee. its purpose is to afford a medium for free discussion and exchange of ideas among physicians.
To provide no-cost health care to families who have no insurance and do not qualify for the states low income insurance program.
Knoxville botanical gardens and arboretum provides and maintains gardens for the benefit and enjoyment of the general public.
Educate preschool through twelfth grade children in a Christian environment while developing them spiritually,academically, emotionally, and physically with Jesus Christ as their standard and the Bible as their foundation.
Knoxville college is a private, church related coeducational liberal arts institution. the college is open to students of diverse backgrounds and cultures who seek a quality liberal arts education.
To provide financial support for the knoxville museum of art.
Providing art exhibits and education to southwest virginia and northeast tennessee
To hold, maintain, renovate and improve certain real property known as the historic tennessee theatre located in knoxville tennessee, in order to provide a performing arts venue for the community and other entities for historic and…
To provide affordable housing to low and moderate income persons in east tennessee through first-time homebuyer education; assist with mortgage loans, downpayments, and closing costs; build new single family housing; develop multi-family…
To cultivate healthy communities by supporting relationships between local farmers, producers, and the public.
Knoxville panther scholarship foundation was created to provide a means for the knoxville community to provide academic support and financial aid to students of the community to further their education.
Nashville public radio's mission is to be the most trusted & independent nashville voice, connecting our communities through non-partisan journalism, compelling storytelling, civil conversation and music discovery.
How this is measured
71 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2025.
Each grant beside the grantee’s revenue from every source, year by year.
How this is measured
Counted here: distinct organizations funded across 2017 to 2025, not grant rows in a single year, so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 71 of the 114 grantees resolved in that span have returns of their own we could reconcile.
Each grantee is resolved to its own IRS returns. Association, dated; never a causal claim.
Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee
Each grantee by its size and the funder’s share of it; top left is load-bearing
Grantee by grantee: a decade per organization, before and after funding
A decade per grantee: revenue shaded, grants as bars, all rows on one timeline.
- Who funds FIDELITY INVESTMENTS CHARITABLE GIFT FUND ↗
- Who funds UNITED WAY OF GREATER KNOXVILLEINC ↗
- Who funds KNOXVILLE SCIENCE MUSEUM INC ↗
- Who funds KNOXVILLE MUSEUM OF ART ↗
- Who funds EPISCOPAL SCHOOL OF KNOXVILLE ↗
- Who funds TENNESSEE STATE COLLABORATIVE ON REFORMING EDUCATION ↗
- Who funds KNOXVILLE SYMPHONY SOCIETY INCORPORATED ↗
- Who funds KNOX EDUCATION FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds MARYVILLE COLLEGE ↗
- Who funds THE MUSE KNOXVILLE ↗
- Who funds BLOUNT COUNTY CHILDREN'S ADVOCACY CENTER INC ↗
- Who funds HORATIO ALGER ASSN OF DISTINGUISHED AMERICANS INC ↗
- Who funds MOTLOW COLLEGE FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds SECOND HARVEST FOOD BANK OF EAST TENNESSEE ↗
- Who funds WEBB SCHOOL OF KNOXVILLE ↗
- Who funds KNOXVILLE ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS INC ↗
- Who funds PELLISSIPPI STATE COMMUNITY COLLEGE FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds Knoxville Childrens Theatre Inc ↗
- Who funds EMPTY STOCKING FUND FORMERLY BGL FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds EAST TENNESSEE COMMUNITY DESIGN CENTER ↗
- Who funds INTERFAITH HEALTH CENTER ↗
- Who funds BOYS & GIRLS CLUBS OF THE TENNESSEE VALL ↗
- Who funds LEADERSHIP KNOXVILLE INC ↗
- Who funds BRYANTS BRIDGE INC ↗
- Who funds SMOKY MOUNTAIN ANIMAL CARE FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds KNOXVILLE MONTESSORI ASSOCIATION INC ↗
- Who funds GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAINS INSTITUTE INC ↗
Co-funders
Grantmakers whose grantees overlap with this funder’s far more than size alone predicts. Closer means stronger alignment; arcs show where they also fund each other. Here they form a tightly interlocked group: most of these funders back each other's grantees too.
Open a dossier: Haslam Family Foundation Inc · East Tennessee Foundation · The Clayton Homes Foundation · Stowers Machinery Foundation Inc · The Boyd Foundation · Bill and Crissy Haslam Foundation · University Health System Inc · Lawson Family Foundation · Thompson Charitable Foundation · The Melrose Foundation · Akima Club Inc · The Aslan Foundation
How this is measured
How much its grantees rely on government
Each dot is one organization The Clayton Family Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from The Clayton Family Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.
- Guadalupe Center Inc: 0% of income from government
How this is measured
Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus
How do I get to The Clayton Family Foundation?
Find your warmest path to The Clayton Family Foundation through trustees and officers whose names appear on both boards. Search for your organization and Plinth traces the shortest route it can evidence.
Each link is a name appearing on two organizations’ public IRS 990 filings, matched on that name and, where the filings support it, on location. A same-state match has geographic support, which is a second matching feature rather than confirmation that the two are one person; a cross-state one is the likeliest to be two people who share a name. Every hop shows its tier, low-confidence and distant paths are held back rather than guessed, and it is worth confirming the person before you use the introduction.
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